Two notable Russian River Valley wineries that are not usually open to the public – Dehlinger and Scherrer – hold open house events in the spring and fall of each year. I took the opportunity to visit them and to stop at a couple of other wineries while in the area. Al Osterheld and Eric Lundblad came along to act as color commentators for the day. The weather was perfect, just a day before a record April heat wave hit the Bay Area, and we had a smooth drive to our first stop at Dehlinger Winery, a few miles north of the town of Sepastopol.

Dehlinger Winery

Dehlinger has been one of the standard-bearers for Russian River Valley wines for many years. All of their wines are made from fruit grown on their 45-acre estate vineyard, which surrounds their modest winery building. Among the most consistent producers of Pinot Noir in the area, they also grow Chardonnay, Syrah, and – unusual for Russian River Valley – Cabernet Sauvignon. The winery produces an annual total of about 7,000 cases.

The first plantings in the vineyard date from 1975, and we noticed right away when we drove through part of the vineyard to the winery that some of the old vines had been cut down. We asked inside what the story was, and found out that these had been some of the original Chardonnay vines that, besides their age, were afflicted with phylloxera (AxR1 rootstock strikes again) and leafroll virus. The bases and roots of these vines will be removed soon. These sections of the vineyard will be replanted in about three years, probably with Pinot Noir and Syrah. The “lyre” trellis system seen in the older plantings is less common these days, and we were told that some of the vines have been retrained to decrease vigor. The new plantings will be on a closer spacing than the old ones, and will probably use VSP trellising. Other older blocks of the vineyard will be gradually replanted in the coming years.

The open house was enjoyable, with tasty salumi, cheeses, and other appetizers to accompany the wines. Tom Dehlinger seems to prefer staying in the background at these events, and he was busy taking care of various tasks as we tasted through all of the winery’s the current releases plus one library wine. Dehlinger’s wines can be a little tough to judge when they’re as young as these are – all of them tend to round out from some time in the cellar and hit their peak after a few years – but the new releases all show plenty of promise. Considering how delicious the winery’s Cabernet and Claret wines can be with some bottle age, I’m surprised that more of their neighbors don’t make their own Cabs.

All of Dehlinger’s wines show beautiful balance – for example, while some sweet oak is often noticeable, it never is allowed to dominate but always serves to complement the fruit and other components of each wine’s profile. Pinot Noir is their flagship wine, and while they usually feature rich, sweet fruit, they don’t stray into over-ripeness or over-extraction. It’s this combination of ripeness and restraint in Dehlinger’s wines that has led them to become one of the area’s finest producers.

Scherrer Winery

After leaving Dehlinger, we drove a short distance west and soon arrived at the Scherrer facility, housed in an old steel shed building that was once used for apple-packing, the area around Sebastopol having been famous for its apple orchards before vineyards took over much of the land.

Fred Scherrer was on hand to help pour all of his spring releases, plus a Chardonnay released last fall. The wines were arranged atop three barrels, with some delicious appetizers on a table nearby. As usual, Fred’s father Ed – owner of Scherrer Vineyard in Alexander Valley – was also there to help pour at the open house.

We had a chance to talk with Fred for a short time as we sampled his Rosé and Chardonnay. He noted that the Rosé is always a blend of saignée from Pinot Noir and Zinfandel. He blends it carefully to the point where neither retains its distinct varietal character, but instead melds into a harmonious synthesis of the two. In ’08, this wine is 61% Pinot Noir and 39% Zinfandel, and did not go through malolactic fermentation. Fred thinks the ’08 vintage is the best rendition of this wine that he’s produced, and it was indeed outstanding.

Fred also told us that he only ended up with 47 gallons of Helfer Vineyard Chardonnay in 2008 due to frost damage in the vineyard (springtime frosts hit many vineyards in ‘08). He barrel-fermented this in one new and one once-used barrel, then racked the wine into a custom-made 47-gallon barrel for aging. The ’06 vintage that we tasted was excellent, and this wine has a track record of aging very well.

Before we moved to the wines being poured at the next barrel, Fred noted how much work the ’06 Pinot Noir demanded. As was the case with many California Pinot vineyards that year, the clusters had lots of botrytis, so slow and careful sorting was essential to get clean fruit prior to destemming. He was pleased at how well his Russian River Valley bottling had turned out, his hard work having paid off in a challenging vintage.

It’s not surprising that Dehlinger and Scherrer wines share some similar characteristics – after all, Fred Scherrer worked for Tom Dehlinger at his winery for many years. Both winemakers are thoughtful and low-key, and their wines reflect that character. Both produce wines that showcase ripe fruit which clearly says “California,” while maintaining balance and elegance not always found in many of the bigger, riper, and more extracted wines that have been popular in recent years.
 
We drove north to Healdsburg for lunch, since there are so many good dining options there. We settled on Ravenous, just off the plaza near the center of town. We all ended up ordering a pasta dish featuring several types of mushrooms – a delicious and relaxing meal. Since we had not made any winery appointments in the afternoon, we decided to drop in at a couple of local tasting rooms. The first of these was right in Healdsburg, at Holdredge Wines, a winery I’d heard about but had never visited before.

Holdredge Wines

John Holdredge greeted us at the tasting bar just inside his winery. He told us that the barn-like 19th-century building on the southern edge of Healdsburg that houses Holdredge Wines was once a cream of tartar works (cream of tartar is a byproduct of winemaking, formed from the tartaric acid in grapes). It was owned by none other than Georges de Latour, who sold the successful cream of tartar business, purchased a vineyard in Napa Valley and founded Beaulieu Vineyard in 1900.

John and his wife Carri started their winery in 2001, and they now produce around 2,000 cases per year. Although I’d never met John before, I was familiar with him through his participation in several internet wine forums. I’m happy to report that the ever-present humor that John displays so well on the web is even more apparent in person. Gregarious and witty, he’s a great host for anyone coming to taste at his winery.

It was a treat tasting through five Pinot Noirs as distinctive from one another as John’s ‘07s are. Generally on the lighter side of California Pinot (except for the bigger Wren Hop bottling), they all feature a bright and lively acidity – a distinguishing trait that I found in all of John’s wines. All the Pinots get an 8-10 day cold soak, and are fermented entirely with indigenous yeast. They’re punched down by hand and generally pressed slightly before they go dry. They are not inoculated for malolactic fermentation either. The Holdredge barrel room looks like the sales floor for François Frères barrels – that’s virtually the only cooper that John uses.

The Zinfandels and Syrahs also showed the hallmark Holdredge acidity, and like the Pinots, the wines showed a clear differentiation between the bottlings. Both Syrahs are fermented with about 50% whole-cluster fruit. This is handled very well in the winemaking, as neither wine seemed overtly stemmy, which some whole-cluster fermented wines can be when this young. Overall, Holdredge has an impressive group of wines that should appeal to those looking for unmistakably California wines in an elegant and food-friendly style.

Copain Wine Cellars

After driving south from Healdsburg, we arrived at Copain Wine Cellars for our last stop of the day. Copain has produced excellent and distinctive wines over the years, made in their custom crush facility in Santa Rosa. They built their own winery along Eastside Road south of Healdsburg, and moved into it in time for the 2007 crush. This was my first visit to the handsome new facility, on a hillside overlooking Russian River Valley to the west. There is a vineyard surrounding the winery, although Copain does not use this fruit for their own wines and instead sells it.

We walked into the spacious tasting room and settled in at the bar. We noticed right away that the bottles for the 2007 wines are smaller than the earlier ones, something that will please many wine-lovers who are not fond of the larger, heavier bottles from previous vintages. Also new is the winery’s “Tous Ensembles” series of wines, blended appellation-labeled wines rather than single vineyard bottlings, and something of a replacement for Copain’s earlier “Saisons des Vins” line.

Winemaker Wells Guthrie has made changes in the past few years with his winemaking program. He’s picking fruit earlier than before, aiming for wines with lower alcohol and more acidity than his earlier ones. He’s also using some whole-cluster fermentation for his Pinots, something he’s done consistently over the years with Syrah. With his Syrahs, he’s modified his fermentation methods (going to pumpovers rather than punchdowns) to produce less extraction from stems, as well as using less new oak for aging. The goal is to produce wines that will pair better with food and will age more gracefully.

Tasting room manager James Castañeda poured us a number of Copain’s current releases. Copain’s wines have always been stylistically different from most California wines. If anything, their recent changes have set them apart even farther, but that’s not a bad thing in this case. The wines still feature plenty of flavor and concentration, but combine that with better acidity and structure. These are wines that demand both bottle age and food to show their best, and they should be very rewarding over the coming years.

Al, Eric, and I drove back to the East Bay after a most enjoyable day. A trip to the Russian River Valley is always a treat – the combination of history, beautiful scenery, and fine wines is among the best California has to offer. As always, thanks to everyone that we visited for being so generous with their time and their wine!